


immortality is wasted on the young

by morallyambiguous



Category: DCU, DCU - Comicverse, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morallyambiguous/pseuds/morallyambiguous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Billy Batson is ten, and next year he's going to be in the sixth grade; Billy Batson's been 10 for a long time, and he's never going to be in the sixth grade</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Rise

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: AU prompt. On Earth-16, Captain Marvel has been an active superhero since the 1940s. By all appearances, he hasn't aged a day in that time.
> 
> Billy Batson is still ten years old. He probably always will be.
> 
> Don't care if it's gen, fluff, angst or really anything. Take any ideas you want and run with them. Maybe Uncle Dudley once a friend of Billy's who eventually outgrew him? IDEK

_1940_

_  
_

His new powers are exhilarating, exciting, and he flies through the sky at every chance he gets, as soon as the bell for school rings he’s racing out the door, ahead of the kids who call him a “nert” or a “queer” when they think that he can’t hear them, ahead of the teachers who look down at him, child of a single mother, an Irish mother at that.  He can hear them in snide voices saying “at least she doesn’t have another twelve little hellions invading our halls.” 

He shrugs them off because he couldn’t care less what they think, he has his mother, and she loves him, and though she doesn’t know about Captain Marvel yet, he’s sure she won’t be too mad.  He’s saving people.  The people of Fawcett city love him, and he can help them, instead of standing by while he watches a boy in his class get punched in the nose for being different.  It’s a great feeling. 

He lands with his big feet on the roof of his apartment building, the spell is whispered quietly and he crawls into his room.  He peers out into the living room where his mom is lying on the couch, asleep, even though it’s only three in the afternoon.  She’ll wake up in a few hours and make dinner, and then she’ll probably go back to sleep, he lays a blanket over her still form and goes to get his favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Rabbit, to keep an eye out for her, but then he remembers that he no longer has it.  It’s in the hands of a little black girl who couldn’t stop crying after the fire went out. 

He smiles as he remembers the look on her face, happy and surprised, and he thinks that if he was Billy Batson, he probably would’ve asked her to go get a milkshake. 

Perhaps Mr. Shazam could look out for his mom tonight instead.

 

 

 

_1952_

_  
_

The orphanage is cold and somewhat damp in the early winter mornings, but Billy doesn’t mind much, not when he still has a roof over his head.  His mom taught him to be grateful of that much.  He can scarcely remember her face, but that’s what happens when your mom dies at five.  He looks to the bed next to his where Freddy is sniffling, he’s been sick for a while but none of the caretakers want to say what it is.  But Billy knows, he’s not stupid.

He sits up and reaches over to the other bed, placing a hand on the other boy’s forehead.  His fever’s down, but it won’t be for long.  He hears one of the caretakers in the hall.  “He’s getting worse, Mary, I don’t know if he’ll survive this, he’s the third one this month, and if you don’t get that thrice-damned brat out of there, he’s going to catch it too.”

Miss Mary scoffs, “That “thrice-damned brat” has been taking care of the other children for three weeks, whatever’s protecting him isn’t going to stop now, and we could use all the help we can get.”

He lifts his hand, and leaves the room, well aware of the caretakers’ eyes on his back.  Captain Marvel needs some space to think, and the orphanage sick room filled with coughing children and suspicious caretakers is no place for that.  He dodges a punch from Black Adam, and saves the day once again.  He saves a cat, rescues a baby, stops an off the track train, and catches a little girl falling to her doom.  He smiles as he returns her to her mother, and nods at her mother’s grateful words.  The little girl grabs his sleeve as he turns to leave and hands him her stuffed animal, she looks up at him through dark lashes, and her eyes are as dark as the night sky, pushes the bunny into his hands with little ebony fingers, and smiles at him.  The stuffed bunny in overalls that has seen better days smiles at him too. 

He bends down to her level and doesn’t notice her mother tensing at her side, prepared to move her daughter to safety should he be… dangerous, but he’s not, he’s Captain Marvel, and he’s better than that.  “For me?”  He asks, knowing full-well that it is.  He doesn’t normally take the tokens offered to him, but this time he can’t help it.  He takes the stuffed bunny and shoots into the sky.

Curfew is soon, and if he’s not careful, he’ll be late.  He lands in the sick room, it’s still the same drab, depressing room that it was before, but he looks at Freddy, and then he looks at the bunny in his hand.

He puts the bunny next to Freddy, makes sure that they’re both tucked in tight, and goes to his room for the night, thinking that for a moment the hospital room had looked just the littlest bit lighter.


	2. The Fall

_1976_

He runs after Charlie, trying to beat him to soda shop.  Last one there has to pay for the loser's drink.  He chortles as he trips over his own two feet, his shoelaces untied.  He looks up and sees Charlie at the door, looks like he's going to lose anyway.  He hears the breaks on a passing car give out and he's ducking into an alley before he even has time to consider that he just lost and has to pay for Charlie's drink (that jerk will order the most expensive soda, he knows it, because that's just the way he is).

Captain Marvel's power comes to him easily and settles over his skin like a second skin.  He runs into the street and picks up the car that was careening towards the crosswalk, lifting it into the air so that he can slow it down without hurting the people inside.  He smiles at the woman inside, tears running down her face and arm reaching back to comfort the little boy in the backseat.  He finds a shop, and settles the car down in front of it.

Billy turns to leave, mind already occupied by all the ribbing Charlie is going to give him for being late, only to be tackled by the woman from inside crying and holding her child. 

"Thank you!"  She cries, clutching both him and her kid.  "Thank you so much!"

"It's no problem ma'am." He says, blushing, he always blushes when they come to thank him.  He doesn't need it, he's just happy to make the world, a better, happier, safer place.  He has a flash of little hands and curly hair, giving him a present, but it's gone as soon as it's there.  He's plagued by a vague sense that this scene in particular is familiar.  The little boy is still crying though, loud wails and screams.  Billy bends down to look him in the eyes.  And flashes from the scene to his room at the Foster's, picking up an old bunny, stuffed and worn, having seen better days, but still looking loved, none-the-less.  He holds it up to the little boy, whose eyes are wide and shining, faced tinted red and eyes puffy from crying.  He takes the bunny with little hesitance, fingers clasping open and shut, and pulling it to him.  Billy wants to laugh when the little boy wipes his tears with the bunny's fur, but is pretty sure that Captain Marvel wouldn't do that.

The woman though, she looks at him with wide eyes, "It is you, you haven't aged a day."  It's a whisper, her breath coming out in a gasp.

Billy doesn't hear her, distracted by how long his little rescue has taken and how he's going to possibly explain this to Charlie.  "I'm sorry ma'am, but I have to go, stay safe."

He lifts off, but she grabs his hand.  "Thank you.  For everything."

Billy doesn't understand what she's thanking him for again, but there's a weight to her voice and the whisper of a memory against the back of his mind that makes him stop, feet lifted off the ground but not really going anywhere yet.  He's smiles at her.  "It's been my pleasure, ma'am."

He smiles as he flies over to the alley where he'd transformed, changing back in a bright flash of light and running to the soda shop.  He keeps smiling as he makes it to the counter where Charlie is, true to form, ribbing him about being late and making him pay for his soda.

_1995_

It's a nice summer day, good for business, and Billy's feeling pretty great.  He made fifteen dollars from mowing lawns that morning and sneaking into the community pool to take a shower went well because Sally was on duty and she always looks the other way when he wants to use it. 

He walks down to 7th street, turning down it because there are always a few old ladies who need help around the house in exchange for snacks and change.  He waves at Mrs. Jones, who smiles and waves him over.

"Afternoon Mrs. Jones, do you need any help today?"

She smiles and shakes her head.  "Maybe tomorrow, child.  Mrs. Dudley just moved in last week and her boy is away at school, you go on see if she needs help, just tell her I sent you."  She points to a house across the street and he smiles and nods, thanking her as he walks away to knock on the door.

The woman who answers the door is pretty in the way that he imagines a grandma might be, if he had one.  She smiles at him, "How can I help you, child?"

"Mrs. Jones sent me over here to see if you need any help, ma'am.  She sad you just moved in, and might need it."  She looks up to where Mrs. Jones is sitting on her porch, reading.

"Well, young man, I think I might have a few things for a boy like you.  Come in and let's see what you can do."  He smiles and follows her in, looking at all the unpacked boxes lining the front room.  She puts him to work, hard and difficult moving boxes to and from rooms.  Not for the first time he wished that he was just as strong as Billy as he was as Captain Marvel. 

It's only when he's unpacking some boxes for the living room that something twinges in his memory.  It's an old stuffed bunny, dressed in frayed overalls, and he can see the places where parts had fallen off but were replaced by new fabric, lovingly crafted to look a part of the original bunny.  It looks more Frankenstein than bunny, but it's obviously something special.

"I had a bunny like that when I was littler."  He says, pointing at the bunny.  Mrs. Jones looks up from where she was hanging pictures, her and a little boy that gets older and older in each subsequent picture.  The bunny plays a starring role in quite a few of them. 

She looks at him for a moment, just looks at him, old eyes following the shape of his nose and the shape of his jaw, and she drops the picture frame she's holding, the breaking glass echoing loudly in the otherwise quite room.  "How old are you Billy?"

He doesn't know what that has to do with anything, but he answers her anyway, "Ten years old, Mrs. Jones."

Her small smile falls, and she takes in a deep breath before asking him another question, "How old were you when I met you last time, Billy?"

The question, for reasons he can't quite explain, doesn't strike him as odd.  'Ten, ma'am."

"Oh, child, how long have you been ten?" 

"About a year or so."  And then the turn of the conversation, unclouded by the strange sense of nostalgia that he got when he met, scares him.  He's never met this woman before.  He's just ten, he's never met her before.  "I. I've got to go."

And he runs away.

He never goes back to 7th Street.


	3. The Rebirth

_2007_

Billy's never liked school, he's pretty good at it, but everything always feels like he already knows it.  But Mr. Dudley is cool and nice and when he teaches them history twice a week, it's always really fun, so Billy tries to pay attention. 

"Now class," Mr. Dudley says, quieting the chatter down with just the sound of his voice.  "Today I've brought you something very important to my family."  He holds up a stuffed bunny.  "This week we've been going over Fawcett City's history and there's no way we can talk about that without talking about our city's guardian angel, Captain Marvel."

The class goes wild with claps and hollers and Billy sinks into his seat, embarrassed.  He'd only been Captain Marvel for a few weeks (...decades...) and he's scared about not meeting up to the guy who'd come before him

Mr. Dudley laughs and tells the class to calm down.  "Now this animal has been my families for several generations."  And he tells the story of his mother and grandmother meeting Captain Marvel for the first time and giving him the bunny, only to have it returned to them when his he and his mother were saved when he was a little boy, intertwining it with sightings of Captain Marvel throughout the decades and how he'd shaped the city with both his heroics and his kindness.  The stories going over great with the fifth graders.  Superman might be the most popular superhero everywhere else in America, but Captain Marvel was one of the first and he'd been protecting Fawcett City for over fifty years.

Billy hangs back after school to talk to Mr. Dudley.  He doesn't know why he does it, but he blurts out, "I had a bunny like that when I was littler."

For a long moment, Mr. Dudley just looks at him over the rim of his glasses, and for a moment, Billy is sure that he knows. 

"Billy I want you to know that if you ever need anything, a place to stay, something to eat, someone to listen, I'm here for you.  I know that you do extra jobs around town and that your clothes are old and that you don't always have pencils or paper or colored pencils.  I've noticed and I just wanted you to know that if you ever needed help, I can help you."

Billy hadn't realized that other people had noticed, and it's been months since he's slept anywhere but the shelter.  He doesn't realize that he's crying until the tears are already rolling down his face.  He wipes roughly at his face.

Mr. Dudley bends down to look him in the eyes.  "Billy, would you like to come home with me tonight?  Tomorrow I can help you out, okay?  You don't have to do this all by yourself."  There's a weight to his words that Billy doesn't quite get, but he follows Mr. Dudley to the parking lot and his car and dozes as they drive down Main Street and turn on 7th.  There's something familiar about Mr. Dudley and he likes him even more now.

Mr. Dudley leads him into a house with a big front room.  There's an old lady sitting on the couch, watching TV and knitting.  She drops it as Billy and Mr. Dudley come in, hand flying to her mouth.

"Hi Ma, this is Billy, he's going to be joining us for dinner tonight."

 

_2012_

He looks out at his team.  "Hi, my name's Billy Batson, I'm ten years old, and I'm Captain Marvel." 


End file.
